LONDON -- Britain's most prestigious private school has rejected a call for its help in running London's city academies.

Eton headmaster Tony Little said he has to focus on his own students, The Independent said Wednesday.

Alan Jackson, Britain's Education secretary, has suggested private schools sponsor a city academy as a way of justifying the charitable tax breaks they receive.

Little said the move may be too much of a distraction.

"Ultimately, private schools have to look after their own pupils and their own parents before they get enmeshed in a vast bureaucratic exercise that will suck in huge amounts of management time," he told the British newspaper.